Solar

by Ian McEwan

Book Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER - From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement, this "totally gripping and entirely hilarious" novel (The Wall Street Journal) traces the arc of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist's ambitions and self-deception.

Dr. Michael Beard's best work is behind him. Trading on his reputation, he speaks for enormous fees, lends his name to the letterheads of renowned scientific institutions, and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307739538
• ISBN13: 9780307739537
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

LOVED IT

My favorite book of the summer by far. I laughed , cringed , and felt happy that there is a writer out there that has the intelligence and canniness to describe the main character and the world around him as McEwan does. Much lighter that other McEwan novels I had read before , so it maybe a bit different for the diehard fan. I loved it and highly recommend it.

Quantum Mechanics, Relativity & String Theory Explain it All, Except for Human Behavior

In McEwan's most recent book, "Solar" the author takes on the most all encompassing subject ever. In the study of Physics, Quantum Mechanics is used to explain the movement and actions of the very, very small; submicroscopic in fact. Einstein's General and Special Theories of Relativity explain the very large. In between the two is the study of String Theory, which assumes that there are strings that are in fact 1-dimensional entities that can vibrate through 11 different dimensions and explain all of the universe in that their vibrations give things their character, charge, mass and spin and that all things can be connected via these strings. McEwan uses these theories of physics in his book. His protagonist, Beard, is a Nobel Laureate physicist who was credited with the discovery of "Einstein's Conflation" which is a set of mathematical formulas that make Einstein's Theory of Relativity much more uniform and elegant. In physics, there is a model for this type of discovery. Paul Dirac proposed a set of mathematical equations which were in fact a "relativistic equation of motion" for the wave function of the electron. Dirac's work allowed him to predict the existence of the positron, which is the `anti-matter' analog of the electron. His work was further developed later by others. Interestingly, like Dirac, Beard started his work in UK and ended in America, in the Southwest. Dirac ended up in Florida. Beard's expertise in the book dealt with light. Therefore, he dealt more directly with photons than electrons. Yet all of these particles are tied together by the Quantum Mechanics models and define the manner in which these particles interact on the subatomic level. McEwan takes the entire universe of physics and makes it global by dealing directly in the book with "global warming" and a solution thereto. That is what Beard is trying to do, with a little help from his friends along the way. It seems that in order to get to a workable model that would allow him to convert sunlight directly into energy that would split water into hydrogen and oxygen, Beard figured out a way to mimic photosynthesis. But like most huge discoveries, Beard did not discover all this on his own. He "stood on the shoulders of giants" as Sir Isaac Newton once said. Except that in Beard's version of standing on their shoulders, he basically stole the information from another researcher. Then he worked this information into a feasible application. Yet it seems that explaining the entire workings of the universe would be incomplete to McEwan, without weaving in the most important component from his perspective. He works into the plot the human element. In a way, he uses the human character and motivation as a virtual "string theory" that ties the scientific discoveries together with the humanity that is often gritty and even dastardly in McEwan's portrayal. Never before have the entire workings of the Earth and the Universe been tied together with the h

Joy

I imagine I'm only one of a handful of people here never to have read an Ian McEwan novel before. Where have I been? How long will it take me to read the other dozen or so? Will I ever be able to catch up? There are no two ways about it: this is writing of the very highest order. Well, I guess I was prepared for that when I picked it up. What I wasn't quite prepared for was such a gorgeous plot, one that takes on proper thriller dimensions, together with breathtakingly well-drawn characters for whom our compassion is never far away. Moreover, the comedic elements - so self-assured with this writer - are the perfect foil for the underlying seriousness of the general theme: "It's a catastrophe. Relax!" Michael Beard exclaims to a newly-doubting colleague at one point, and we all laugh. This, amongst other qualities that are too numerous to list, is the genius of Ian McEwan. I can hardly wait to hoover up everything else he's written.

If you are a McEwan fan, I think you will like this

Brief summary, no spoilers. Our protagonist in this story is a middle-aged man named Michael Beard. Michael is a brilliant physicist who won a Nobel Prize early in his career, but he hasn't done much professionally since then. Michael takes on the task of solving the global warming crisis. He does this not because of his sense of goodwill or because he cares about saving humanity, but more because he is an opportunist and he sees the personal advantage in his doing so. He's not even convinced that global warming exists, and doesn't really care. Michael is a serial womanizer, to say the least. He has been married five times, and cheated on them all. His charm comes not from his physical looks (he is described as short and dumpy), but from his brilliant mind and impressive resume, and his clever machinations to get all these women to fall in love with him. He is almost sociopathic in his detachment to them all, and in fact, to his feelings in general. The story is told in 3 parts - first in the year 2000, as Michael's fifth wife has decided to leave him. As Michael tries to win her back, we read about his professional and personal life, the concealment of a crime, and the theft of intellectual property. Plus, we have an unbelievably harrowing description of a journey to the Arctic, with a scene so shocking that I'll never forget it. This first section of the book is my favorite, and classic McEwan. We then go on to sections 2 and 3. We also go back in time learn about Michael's upbringing and what makes him tick and about his lack of empathy and attachment. The last section takes us to the present, as Michael is on the verge of being famous and being credited with coming up with a solar solution to the global warming crisis. But of course this is a McEwan novel, and there will always be a price to pay for Michael's sins, as well as a skewering of politics in general. I am a big fan of Ian McEwan, and have read all of his books. When he has a new book out, I read it right away, and this one was no exception. I enjoyed this novel, but like his book Saturday, there is a lot of technical discussion. In Saturday we learned a lot about surgery - in this novel it's quantum mechanics and global warming theory. For some readers this may slow the story down, but I was impressed with McEwan's research and thought the balance between scholarly narrative and interesting plot was just perfect. And as always, I think this author has some fantastic and profound observations about humanity and the ability to string together just the most perfect words to express these ideas. Atonement is still my favorite McEwan book, with Enduring Love a close second. But I did enjoy this book and recommend it.

Brilliant satire

McEwan's latest novel skewers fanatics, libertines, and the god-headed media, as well as taking an unapologetic stab at the politics and religiosity of 21st century science. He reveals the folly of doublethink, groupthink, and egomania in a ferocious satire of many-layered complexity. When you close the pages of the book, you are apt to appreciate it more as it settles into the parts of your brain that mingle literature with social commentary. The entertainment value is actually eclipsed by its brilliance, the dazzling rays reaching out to prior gems and reflecting an awful lot of sublime light. It's cheeky, satirical, uncomfortable, and to some readers, it will be controversial. Our unsympathetic protagonist is Michael Beard. (I note that the name is no accident, a beard being a person that is used by someone else to cover something up, and Michael meaning someone who is like God.) Michael is a 50-something former Nobel laureate, resting on his fleshy laurels from twenty-two years ago, where he stood on the shoulders of Einstein and proposed a scientific "Conflation Theory" that was trailblazing at the time. Now, he tours around the globe giving lectures and consults for a large fee, and he sits idly as a member of a board at a center for renewable energy in the UK. His main pursuit is women, and he pursues them with -aholic depravity. As the novel opens, his fifth marriage is falling apart due to his infidelities. But this time, his wife got the last word by having some side dishes for herself and leaving him labeled as the cuckold. Michael is a bozo with a brain. He is selfish, hideous, immoderate, and amoral. He exploits what he sees as the folly and weakness of the mass ideology in order to feed his degenerate egomania, but he is in denial of his own foolishness and excesses. He observes the current hysteria of global warming fanatics. (By the way, don't kill the messenger--I am not denying the seiousness of climate change, but rather sharing aspects of the novel). He compares them to Old Testament Armageddon-addicts and peril-seekers. He proclaims that global warming has created so much heat that it has evolved into a religion of sorts, so that even left-wing atheists have merged science and religion into a cataclysmic catastrophe, a noble purpose--and, for some people, a fanatical life quest. Well, Beard wants IN. He swindles and schemes and adopts ideas as his own, swaggering in with a proposal for a renewable energy source by artificial photosynthesis. He commits the most menacing breach of humanity and moral ethics in order to achieve his aims, and the reader can see him barreling toward comeuppance right out of the starting gate. His massive appetite for food and women continue to grow--he feeds the beast and the Buddha-belly at every opportunity, and drinks booze like water. He fervently maintains his invincibility as a hustler and a savior of mankind. Along the way are moments of physical comedy that are sheer